How You Should Be Using Twitter to Build Your Business
| Share |
We all know that Twitter has morphed into far more than just answering the question “What are you doing?” and become a valuable tool for business. And although I’ve stated for the record that I’ve have used Facebook more than Twitter for my business purposes, there is still a lot that you can do to use Twitter to help promote your business. And one of the most important things you could be doing is something that you probably haven’t thought of.
The most obvious way to use Twitter is to use it to promote your site, whether that be your latest blog post, or news about a new product that’s just been added to your lineup. That’s not news, and everybody should be doing that by now (right?) But the thing that most people aren’t using Twitter for that they should be is…
…are you ready for this???
They should be using it to LISTEN to your customers.
Yes, I know that goes against what you think about Twitter; it’s a platform to help you talk about yourself and your business, another way to get your message out to the masses. We’ve become so me-centric and used to talking about ourselves that we rarely think about listening. Which is crazy, really, because we all know that they key to success in business is to listen to your customers and then make sure that you’re giving them what they want.
Maybe that’s just because we’re not used to thinking of Twitter that way – as a way listen to people as well as a way to talk. But you can. Identify search terms and phrases that are targeted towards your business. Then, when someone tweets about something to do with your business or niche, you can retweet and offer them a solution to their problem, whether by promoting your products, or maybe just by pointing them to your blog where they can learn valuable information. This is especially useful if you are in a service industry – people tweet a lot of the time with recommendations for restaurants, hairdressers, accountants of all sorts of other things.
Now, it may take a little trial and error to figure out what search phrases will work for your business, and how to ensure you’re finding people who are looking for information, and not people who are trying to promote their own products and businesses (although that can be a great way to meet some like-minded colleagues in your niche).
By looking at it in a different way, you can get even more out of Twitter; you just need to remember that they key a successful business is not only promoting it, and also in listening to what people want.
I consider twitter as one tool to generate traffic for my blogs. by posting or tweeting after few seconds my traffic went up
I have seen many restaurants doing an excellent job “listening” with Twitter. Not surprisingly though, it’s been small local restaurant who have done the better job with this and not the big chains. You’d think that the larger companies, with larger budgets would take the time to listen better.
Twitter is changing and how we use it needs to change. The best way is exactly what you said,, LISTEN interact with your followers.
Excellent advice. It’s a great market research tool. Plus, if you can answer questions that people ask in a really helpful way (and not just by including your own affiliate link), then they’ll love you.
I have no idea of how I should be using it, but using it I am. My traffic seems to be up as well.
I agree that listening makes an impression. If somebody steps in and solves your problem via Twitter you are much more likely to connect with them.
Hi Jason,
Your idea of listening rather than just promoting yourself on twitter sounds good.
I’m still skeptical about it though since if everybody is mostly promoting their own biz I’d be listening to their own promotions which may be OK but very time consuming.
I remember a several months ago I was asking for help that I thought other marketers would jump over themselves to answer but in the end nobody did.
So you are right that listening could pay off since requests like mine do happen occasionally.
Vance
Excellent point! You can use Twitter to listen to your prospects and clients. Never really put that much thought into it. As in everything else in life, you would gain much benefit to listening as well as doing talking!
any social media can be used as a tool to promote business. thanks to the creators of social media, promoting a business is much less daunting…continue reading
Promoting is important, but it is not enought to build successful bussines. Bussines must listen to customers to understand what they want and to know where bussines is wrong.
You are right. Promoting is important, but it is not enought to build successful bussines. Bussines must listen to customers to understand what they want and to know where bussines is wrong.
John,
This is a great way to use twitter. I’ve see this kind of thing done with google alerts also. You can specify certain phrases and get the results of the alert emailed to you as they happen.
Great for brand monitoring but is also great for being at the forefront of your customers mind.
When someone is looking for “best place to have a haircut in san diego” for instance and you instantly chime in with “just so happens I own a salon in san diego” your now new customers will thank you for reading their minds.
Thinking of so many ways to use this now for my business.
Thanks
Reach new heights
Nathan
Great thoughts!It is just a better tool, but also on other factors.
I have just started 10BlogGurus Plan Where We Share Our tweets and discuss abt it….
Great Advice. There are many features on social media sites that business overlook because it is not obvious. It’s good that you are trying to make others aware of this.
I think this one good advice on using twitter that I’ve heard for some time now. Promoting your business with social networking sites like twitter demands truly getting into the conversation and redirecting it to your gain.
I agree that listening makes an impression. If somebody steps in and solves your problem via Twitter you are much more likely to connect with them.